It all started over twenty years ago, back in 1987, when two radio-fanatics and music-freaks Hans Tieleman and Ren? Bakker decided to start their own record store due to lack of service they got in the stores every time they bought records for their radio-show called "Free Radio Rotterdam". They experienced a "customer-unfriendly" atmosphere, and felt you had to be a close friend of the owner or a famous DJ for that matter to get the good records. They decided they could do a better job running a record store themselves by putting the customers needs at first place, either the customer being the boy next door or that famous DJ. Action still speaks louder than words, so they did. Their very first store in the south of Rotterdam which had a big collection of Italo music, dance classics and early house records, soon proved to be a success, and a second store in the centre of Rotterdam was started. PAUL ELSTAK, being a DJ in a local club spinning early house, disco and R&B back then, was asked to run this store. And again.with success! Not long after that, Mid-Town started their own record labels called ROTTERDAM RECORDS (run by Paul Elstak), INTERDANCE (run by the guys who are now famous as "the Klubbheads") and MID-TOWN RECORDS. After three releases on Rotterdam Records, on which Paul Elstak introduced the "gabber-sound" to the world, the global hit "POING" was released. The sales of this record helped Mid-Town to be the fastest growing independent record company in the Benelux territory !! A warehouse was bought, and Mid-Town Distribution was born, along with a third store.
DJ MISJAH, label manager of and key-provider for X-TRAX RECORDS, showed the world that Mid-Town Records wasn't all about hardcore; with his legendary tracks "TRIPPIN' OUT", "ACCESS" and "THE CLUB", X-Trax Records already reached an untouchable status in the techno-scene with it's first three releases.
The Rotterdam Records gabber-sound got immensely popular with artists like HOLY NOISE, BALD TERROR and NEOPHYTE, and due to that popularity, new hardcore labels TERROR TRAX and FORZE were developed to fill the gap. The hardcore sound reached it's peak with the commercial success of DJ Paul Elstak; tracks like "Rainbow in the sky", "Love u more" and "Don't leave me alone" introduced a new variety: happy hardcore. X-TRAX (techno), BLUE RECORDS (club / hard house) and HIGH VOLTAGE (cross-over) were founded to answer the increasing demand for quality house-music in all it's forms. The warehouse soon became to small for the rapid expansion, and Mid-Town moved to a much larger warehouse with plenty of office space.